Completing an essay is not difficult for those people who already have experience in writing such texts. However, those students (schoolchildren are very rarely given such assignments) who have to do this for the first time are puzzled by many questions. And this, in principle, is correct, since the essay is a special genre, distinguished by its specificity, which should be considered.
Genre features
Essai, translated from French, means “essay”. Simply put, this work expresses the personal thoughts of the author on a particular occasion. Students consider the essay genre convenient in their own way, because it should be small. And you don’t need to think too much about the style of writing, because here it is important to express your emotional experiences, feelings and emotions. The narration should turn out to be light and simple, without unnecessary artistic figures and "water". An essay can be considered a success if every person who read or listened to it not only understood what the author wrote, but felt it. It is very important to express yourthoughts in such a way that it becomes clear to everyone what problem the author is considering, and what is the essence, meaning, and message of the text.
Theme
The essay should begin first of all with understanding the given topic. Often students are given to choose from several existing ones, and sometimes they choose their own. However, the task does not change - it is necessary to delve into the essence, understand the problem in order to competently convey your thoughts to the reader.
A literary essay can be written on the topic of love, friendship, relationships, hometown, war, crisis, politics, etc. It should be something that a person feels emotions about and has something to say. Because if the topic is not chosen of your own free will, nothing good will come of it. A person will write as if under a stick, and the result will be nonsense.
But sometimes it is necessary to write an essay on the topic of a read work. This is easier to do. In other words, it is necessary to express your opinion about what you have read and justify it. Liked or disliked, whether a person agrees with the author's opinion or not - it doesn't matter, the main thing is to write your own vision and argue what was said. There is only one important rule here - do not repeat the author's arguments.
Problems of serious topics
For example, you are writing an essay on the topic “War”. Few people will be left indifferent to such a topic. And there is some difficulty in this too. The fact is that when a person experiences strong emotions and a rich range of feelings, it becomes very difficult to express them. Can't pick upwords that could fully convey what you want to say. How, for example, is the best way to start an essay on the topic “War”? A good introduction would be a phrase that sounds something like this: “War is a huge grief. Tears, tragedies, thousands of dead… The war touched everyone - no one was left aside from this blood-curdling misfortune. Mothers have lost their sons. Wives have lost husbands. And the children never saw their fathers again.” In this small paragraph, there are all the stylistic features inherent in the essay. There is emotionality, feelings - too, there are no artistic surpluses, like "water". In this spirit, it is desirable to write everything else.
Author's style
Types of essays are different. There is no exact typology as such. But one thing can be said with certainty: there are essays that are pleasant to read as texts of an entertaining nature, and there are also works that are very difficult to comprehend. Take, for example, an essay on a military theme. This is a tough topic here. And if the author can write in such a way that it turns out to touch the soul of the readers, then it will be priceless. However, if the language of the text is very heavy, then it will be difficult for many to read it to the end. But such works are needed, they help to comprehend important things. Some authors do not like to leave a heavy feeling after reading their texts, and therefore they write in light language. It is a great skill to write on a serious and difficult topic in such a way that the reader has a pleasant impression. However, these are all individualfeatures of the author's style.
Intro structure
An essay begins with writing an introduction. And although in this case there is no particularly strict composition as such, it does not hurt to draw up a small plan. So, the introduction is two or three sentences that formulate the main problem. And it is not at all necessary to write a mini-annotation for further text. You can make an epigraph, quote someone or ask a rhetorical question. It will be original and also “hook” the reader.
If we talk about what essay rules should be followed, then one of the main ones will be the specific formulation of the problem. Moreover, the author must renounce selfishness. What is meant? It is necessary to single out the problem that would affect not only the author, but also his reader. And almost everyone. You also need to be able to do this - to choose words so that they touch all hearts. Sometimes you can even push the reader to realize something by writing a few suggestive phrases like: “Actually, this is an actual problem, because …”, “It is worth thinking about it, because …”, “This is really an eternal question, because …” - and in that spirit. By the way, elements of logic, analytics and reflection must also be present in the text. This gives it meaning, which is very important.
Reasoning
A literary essay differs from a scientific one by an abundance of aphorisms, tropes, metaphors and comparisons. However, such an essay is not interesting to read if it makes little sense. Even in a work of art there must be reasoning based on logical arguments, arguments and facts. It is important to indicate comments on the problem under consideration. It is necessary to talk about it, about its relevance, to cite as an example the situations in which you had to deal with it. If you have the relevant knowledge, then do not be shy to tell how you can deal with it, that is, give advice.
By the way, ending an essay like this is also a good idea. You can finally write something like this: “Having considered this problem with specific examples and citing the above arguments as evidence, we can confidently state that …” This not only serves as the end of the text, but also focuses the person’s attention, forcing him to the subconscious level to independently summarize everything he has read.
Essay Objectives
So, completing an essay is not such a difficult task. This genre is good because it does not require long texts, abstruse phrases, complex sentences and a certain structure. Any person is able to write a literary essay, the main thing is that the given topic excites him. After all, when there is something to say, the words themselves come out from under the pencil. And if the text is written sincerely, from the heart, then in your own words it will be possible to hook the reader, make them think, reflect and, possibly, change their attitude to the problem under consideration.
When working on an essay, it is worth remembering that these are not just a few paragraphs united in meaning, but embodied thoughts, emotions and feelings. And purer and more valuable than this inour life is nothing.
